Jul 11, 20218:46 PM - edited Aug 12, 202110:39 AM
HubSpot Employee
Inbound sales transforms sales to match the way people buy. It's all about meeting prospects where they are and helping them move toward a purchasing decision. Is this different from the way you're used to approaching sales, or have you been doing sales in this way but calling it something else? Leave your thoughts in the comments about how inbound sales is similar to or different from the way you've been doing sales.
Inbound sales differ from traditional sales in that potential customers initiate contact based on their interest in a company's content or offerings, rather than being directly approached by sales tactics. Referrals close quickly because they come with built-in trust and a pre-established understanding of the value that the company offers, reducing the time needed for nurturing and convincing new prospects.
Initiated by the Prospect: Inbound sales processes aretriggered by the prospect. These prospects actively seek information to address their specific problem, need, or pain point.
Prospect Behavior: Inbound prospects engage with content such as blogs, webinars, and free consultations. They might share their email to access resources like eBooks or infographics.
Salesperson’s Role: An inbound salesperson responds to these engaged prospects. They might send emails or make calls to further qualify the leads.
Congratulations, you have successfully executed a passive pull marketing strategy. There is interest, now make it count. The prospect has identified a need, what's next? It is your job a strategic advisor to help them uncover more embedded issues in order to make your potential solution sound like the greatest fix ever. That is the difference. This isn't cold sales it is a warm opportunity. Now it's time to stoke that warm opp and carefully tinder it into a flame.
Inbound sales makes it a lot easier to close a sale. Inbound is basically the customer knowing they want to buy and they already know what problem they need to fix.
Our job is to make sure our product solves their problem the easiest and fastest way possible and bring the best value to their company.
Because - The buyer Maybe or May not be aware of the Solution they need
It's Resolvable or not. As a salesperson, you have to be his counselor at the same time observer to give them solutions from your product and Service you have.
It is about attracting, engaging, and delighting customers by providing valuable content and solutions tailored to their needs. It's a more customer-friendly and relationship-oriented approach compared to the more traditional.
It is different in approach, as to from the traditional approach or the approach which i was introduced to, here it is catering to the customer's need and then providing them a consultation as to what their problem is really about and how we our solution can help it resolve, wereas no what approach generally is follow why you should take our product or solution and what we are offering rather than how will help.
Inbound sales focuses on attracting and engaging potential customers through content and interactions that address their needs and interests. It involves building relationships, providing valuable information, and guiding customers through the buying process based on their preferences. Unlike traditional outbound sales, which involves reaching out to prospects directly, inbound sales relies on creating a strong online presence, content marketing, and fostering a customer-centric approach to naturally draw leads and convert them into customers.
Inbound sales diverge from traditional methods by prioritizing the buyer's needs and avoiding interruptive tactics. This approach draws buyers in on their terms, aligning with their journey and focusing on a consultative style. Here, sales conversations are nuanced, catering to informed customers already interested in the product. It's a modern strategy in tune with today's buying habits, where sales teams act as informative guides, creating personalized messages that address specific customer pain points. Contrasting sharply with this, outbound sales see teams actively initiating contact with potential clients through methods like cold calling. Consequently, inbound sales stands out for its customer-centric, non-intrusive, and informative nature, as opposed to the more direct and aggressive outbound strategies.
It is totally a different before my entire focus want on offering instead of hearing through customer needs. Upon learning about different identifying phases in inbound sales, I updated my prospective
It's a departure from our usual approach where we primarily focus on accumulating leads we deem suitable for our offerings. We typically reach out through calls or emails to introduce our offerings. However, transitioning to inbound sales has been a game-changer. We now have the ability to (realize and willing to) personalize our approach for each B2B lead, helping them recognize the problems they face, prioritize their needs, and decide that choosing us is their best option. It's truly transformative – like turning the tables around.
From my understanding, and also from what I have seen up to this point in this course Inbound and Outbound Sales are not much different, but are not entirely alike either. Here are some key differences that I have noted:
1. In Outbound Sales, when you Cold Call or send a Cold email, there is a high chance the prospect hasn't yet realised that they have a problem. Therefore, your initial effort is spent on making them realise there is a problem. Hence in outbound, your step 1 is connect and step 2 is identify. In Inbound, on the other hand, connecting comes as step 2 after the prospect has Identified the problem.
Inbound Sales can only work when you have a strong marketing team that can help Prospects arrive at step 1 by themselves but when you are a small sales team, you can't spend time creating individual marketing resources to help a prospect Identify their problem and therefore it is easier to Connect first.
2. The most important difference in Inbound sales is that you can let go of a prospect or a lead when you think they aren't suitable for you without having wasted much of your time. In Outbound Sales, on the other hand, it becomes difficult to do this after having spent time connecting, helping them identify their problem and then eventually realising that they would not buy. As a result, Outbound Sales executives tend to get more pushy/cheeky with their sales tactics to somehow close the deal they spent weeks on and this is the main cause for the lack of trust in Sales Executives.
It is a modern method of selling. The big differnce is taking into consideration the amount of information the buyer has gained on your product. Looking at what problems they are trying to solve for and ultimately does your product address those problems. In the past presenting a broad base proposal was enough, today it needs to be customized to the need of the customer. Sell in is less important vs addressing the specific needs of the customer.
However, I don't quite feel that "process" taught here is exclusively tied to Inbound Sales.
So far until this lesson, I haven't really see how this is different from a typical sales process except the "initiator" part.
Inbound Sales is initiated by a prospect
Outbound Sales is initiated by a salesperson.
The following steps afterwards seemed to be a rewording/rephrasing of a typical sales process. It is named differently yet in essence, to me, it feels the same.
Comparing the term "prospected", "demo-ed", "closed" to "educated", "supported", and "guided" seemed a bit misleading to me too. It somehow frame it as though these are mutually exclusive to only a certain type of sales method. I feel that these aren't mutually exclusive at all.
I also find that the reason why salespersons are typically label as untrusted is due many many many salespersons are doing what I consider as "unethical" sales just to get the deal to close. Overpromise, misleading information, etc.
Prospecting is rendered needless in typical sales process due to the nature of Inbound Sales which is "walk-in" customer.
"Close" is a term used in sales when it ended as revenue generation.
Sales that doesn't bring in any revenue, to me, is a no sales at all. Bringing in revenue is what "close" is all about.
We can call it or reframe it as other names but in essence this is the goal of all sales activity.
Educating, supporting, and guiding are what I consider as technicality of "customer engagement". The importance of "customer engagement "is paramount in both Inbound and Outbound Sales. All the trust-building, connection, etc are build in this phase. Without proper customer engagement, there will most likely be no sales, "no closed deal".
"guiding" customer to a service is a more positively perceived word than "directing" customer to a service.
Inbound sales adapts the sales process to align with the way individuals make purchases. The focus is on engaging with prospects at their current stage and guiding them towards a buying decision. Does this approach differ from your accustomed sales methods, or have you essentially been employing a similar strategy under a different label? Share your thoughts in the comments on how inbound sales compares to or contrasts with your existing sales practices.
Inbound and outbound sales are two distinct methods of selling products or services. Outbound sales entails proactively approaching potential customers, whereas inbound sales focuses on attracting and engaging prospects who have already expressed interest in a product or service.
The Inbound Sales Method closely aligns with the Value-based selling I've practiced extensively. It places paramount importance on addressing customers' needs and desires, ensuring their satisfaction. Embracing this approach significantly minimizes the chances of product returns or service cancellations.
nbound sales differs from traditional approaches by prioritizing a customer-centric, educational, and personalized approach. It leverages content, digital channels, and data-driven insights to engage and guide prospects through their buying journey, focusing on building meaningful relationships and providing value.
Inbound Sales Method is very similar to the Value based selling I have been doing for years. It prioritizes the customers needs or wants to ensure satisfaction. By taking this approach you highly reduce the likehood of a product return or service cancellation as well.
